Jason Kidd has responded to criticism over the ACL injury suffered to Kyrie Irving.
Kyrie Irving’s serious injury has devastated the Dallas Mavericks, leaving their season standing on the precipice of collapse. And there are some who believe the team should embrace the fall-off.
Head coach Jason Kidd spoke following Irving’s injury against the Sacramento Kings, expressing his belief the ACL tear was ‘unlucky’.
This caused some upset among an already riled-up Dallas Mavericks’ fanbase, who branded the bad luck self-inflicted, relating to Irving’s increased minutes following the Luka Doncic trade.
Irving was playing a team-high 39.3 minutes per game in February, and analysts have pointed to the error made by the Mavs of not finding more guard help for Kyrie Irving at the trade deadline.
Speaking before the Dallas Mavericks were beaten 137-107 at the Milwaukee Bucks, Jason Kidd offered a fiery response to claims Irving’s injury was influenced by his workload.
Kidd told the Dallas News: “The load didn’t have nothing to do with the injury. We’re talking about one play. It’s a freak accident. That’s how it should be reported, but we’re not reporting it right. We’re reporting on conspiracy theories.
“We want our stars to play as many minutes [as possible]. This isn’t supposed to be a ‘rest’ league. Kai is our leader. Kai was playing [high] minutes.
“He also was playing at a high level, maybe some of the best basketball that he’s played in his career. And it’s alright to play 40 minutes. We can’t talk from both sides and say that our stars don’t play enough minutes or guys don’t play enough.”
Kidd has doubled down, adding: “He loves to play. It’s alright to play 40 minutes at the age of 32 in a month’s span. This isn’t the whole season.”
You would not expect Jason Kidd to come out and admit influencing the injury to Kyrie Irving with his rotation, even if he believed this was the case.
The issue is not cut and dry. Former NBA star Lou Williams argues the play Kyrie Irving got injured on, could have happened at any time.
Kidd feels necessary to fight his corner, and has a lot to deal with right now, especially with a decision needing to be made over whether to bring back Anthony Davis this season, or not.
One NBA analyst has even argued Davis should be traded in the off-season, with a hard reset required to get back on track in Dallas.
